Is his strategy working . I will ask Legendary Newsman carl bernstein, here to talk about the latest scoop on cohen v. Trump. Whats next for sinclair . Will the angry tweets affect the fccs decision . First, another chapter in the Me Too Movement brought to us once again by rowan farrow, out in print tomorrow is about les moonves and the culture of cbs. Its been eight months since charlie rose was fired from cbs this morning. And now the famed Broadcast Network is again having to report on itself. The New Yorker Magazine is reporting six women have accused cbs chairman and ceo Leslie Moonves of Sexual Harassment and cbs news chairman and current 60 minutes Executive Producer jeff fager allowed harassment. The story is about much more than moonves, its about cbs as a whole, about how Major Media Companies are still having to reckon with the past about alleged abuse that happened in the past and, in some cases, not too long ago. These are issues that have to be addressed by cbs and by other media companies. And its farrow who has been leading the way, exposing some of the darkest secrets of these companies. His latest report about cbs is also about the iconic news magazine, 60 minutes. Executive producer jeff fager, quote, enabled harassment and committed Sexual Harassment himself. He denies those allegations and saying its coming from sources who have an ax to grind. Sparked by farrows report by the New York Times, Me Too Movement has been causing these stories to come to light. Just think about how long its taken to get to this point. Lets address these different stories as carefully as we can, because farrows story is 8,000 words long. The conduct by moonves as the boss at cbs for 20 years allegedly happened between the 1980s and the late 2000s. Some of the women quote rd on the record. Then the story also talks about issues more broadly at cbs. What farrow is indicating is that theres a systemic issue here. So, lets talk to him about it. Farrow is joining me now for one of his first interviews about the report. I know youve been working on this, what, eight months . There have been rumors about this for many months. Then on friday, six hours before your story came out, cbs stock plummeted, cbs issued a statement. I wonder what its been like for you as the whole media world has been wondering what youre working on to try to get your work done carefully, accurately, while everybody else is speculating about it. I think you framed it correctly, brian. Noise and interference. And when you work on stories involving dozens and dozens and dozens of sources, it becomes almost inevitable, when theres so much writing on these important stories that i think really need to be heard that word leaks out. This happened in a number of prominent stories i worked on in the past month and, you know, thats okay. But i do think its important for the public to distinguish between the secondary coverage of the story, often fraught with misinformation and the story itself, which is the product of many meticulous months of investigation. We need to try to distinguish between the different stories youve been doing. When you write about moonves or fager, youre not lumping them in with a predator like weinstein, are you . Of course not. Anyone who reads these stories can see readily were careful not to draw any speculative interferences her inferences here. In the case of Leslie Moonves, not to draw comparisons to anyone else but certainly these are six women and in several cases theyre talking about what they describe as serious Sexual Assaul assault. Moonves says he made mistakes in the past but never misused his power to punish women if they rejected his advances. Do you have evidence to the contrary . Certainly, the womens stories suggest that these are encounters that went a lot farther than that comment allows for. I do think its striking, though, and perhaps reflective of the rapidly changing times that were in, brian, that Leslie Moonves does exhibit a fair amount of contrition in these responses. I have to say that in all of our interactions with cbs and with moonves, which were extensive from a very broad window of comments on this, and worked very closely with them, mr. Moonves personally, to me, was very, very gracious and seemed to take the claims very seriously. Moonves is one part of your story. I want to ask you one more thing about that. He is locked in this epic value with sherry redstone, Controlling Shareholder with cbs. Theres been some insinuation that maybe sherry redstones camp is partly behind your story. How do you react when you hear that kind of insinuation . We address it in the story. These women began coming to me immediately after the weinstein story, Iliana Douglas called me after the first Harvey Weinstein story i wrote and told me her story and weve been carefully investigating since. Now, look, there are plenty of stories that are completely true and fueled by Opposition Research at some time. Weve vetted and revetted these sources and my honest impression that these stories are not only true but also not fueled by Opposition Research. These women came in a heartfelt moment where there was an outpouring of these kinds of stories. And you say 19 sources describe behavior at cbs news that jeff fager, chairman of the News Division and still Executive Producer of 60 minutes that he enabled and allowed for harassment to happen and sometimes made unwanted advances himself. He has flatly denied this. He says your sources have an ax to grind, trying to hurt 60 minutes. What can you tell us about what you learned from these sources . Its a lot of sources that supposedly, in mr. Fagers view, have an ax to grind and a story thats been percolating for a long time. They describe, with some uniformity, brian, what one person in this story terms a mad man culture, where women are made to feel objectfi if object. They paint a picture of a way in which a culture of alleged misconduct at the top can trickle down to various facets of even a large company. Now, youre not the first person to go digging around 60 minutes, as you know. As you mention in your piece, the Washington Post was pursuing a story about fager this year. One of the reporters who wrote about charlie rose, cbs, but didnt say much about fager in her story. You report thats because fager had a team of lawyers get involved. Can you talk us through that . I can. The post did very important, powerful reporting about charlie rose in the fall and starting immediately after that began working on a followup story by two really wonderful reporters, in my view of their work, and they uncovered substantial evidence of misconduct by jeff fager amongst other things. That story was the subject of a heated battle where the post was subject to a lot of pressure from fagers personal legal team. Obviously we also dealt with his legal team. And there were efforts to personally smear those reporters and their professionalism as well as sources in the story. I was struck by what was said at a Mirror Award Speech in june. You wrote about this clip, ronan. When you watch this clip, keep in mind, jeff fager is in the room while she is speaking. I just want to say one thing. I think there is a temptation to think that the last few months have been about individual men, that its about a handful of bad apples and if we get rid of them, it will end the cycle of harassment and abuse. It is not true. The stories weve been doing are actually about a system. The system had lawyers and a good reputation, it had publici publicists. It has a perfectly reasonable explanation about what happened. It has powerful friends that will ask, is this really worth ruining the career of a good man . What one woman says, what four women say, what 35 women say . Indeed, the system is sitting in this room. Some more than others. The system is still powerful men getting stories killed that i believe will some day see the light of day. And i believe she was talking about her own reporting about fager that was never published by the post. So why were you able to get this reporting out there in the new yorker . What happened . I think there are a combination of factors any time a story that is this tough and where sources are this afraid. And theres a long time span where sources grapple with the my main purpose was for accepting the meeting was to raise concerns about the president s deeply troubling antipress rhetoric. I told the president directly that i thought that his language was not only divisive but increasingly dangerous. I told him that although the phrase fake news is untrue and harmful i am far more concerned about its labels journalists the enemy of the people. I warned that this inflammatory language is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence. Trump hasnt answered a single question from reporters since wednesday. Thats the day you remember this happened. Did Michael Cohen betray you, mr. President . Did Michael Cohen betray you . Are you worried what he will say . Are you worried about what is on the other tapes, mr. President . Why has Vladimir Putin not accepted your invitation . Those were the questions asked by Kaitlyn Collins and she was disinvited, meaning banning her, from a gathering that was open to all the press. Ever since the reporters have been able to shout questions near the president , he hasnt responded. Its really telling that hes avoiding any opportunities or any interactions with the press corps. I think it shows that kaitlyns questions were spot on. These issues about cohen and his twisted relationship with putin, these are big stories and were not getting any answers from trump. Lets talk about it with our panel now. The brand new president of the White House Correspondents Association and the Chief Washington correspondent for sirius xm. Katie roberts is here, from the New York Times and s. E. Cupp, host of cnns s. E. Cupp unfiltered. Katie, you have the president talking about your paper today. What do you make of the president and the meeting with your publisher . I think a. G. s meeting stands on its own. I agree that the president s words have weight in the field when we cover rallies. Its very clear that his rhetoric about enemy of the people is resonating across the country. And he is the president. What he says matters. As a reporter, you go into the field, talking to republican voters, having to hear that its fake news, were enemies and it adds a different component to our jobs broadly. The president is entitled to feel however he wants about the coverage about him. Other president s have done the same. What is different is that this president is coming out and calling us enemies of the people. Tell me about wednesday, olivier. The news broke right before your radio show started on sirius xm. You were out with a pretty strong statement within the hour, condemning the white houses actions. Are you trying to take a hard line . Are you trying to show solidarity . We advocate on behalf of the men and women who cover the white house. We try to bring americans news about the president , the presidency, what the government is doing in their name. We want to make sure when Television Pictures are coming from the white house, theyre coming from the news media. When theyre photos, they come from the news photographers, radio sound by the radio folkses. Of course, to try to get as many opportunities to ask questions of senior officials up to and including the president. Thats our core function. In this instance, youre right, it broke from our radio show. I had my Board Operator basically muting my microphone in being questions as i frantically typed on my laptop. Wow this is important to understand, it wasnt just a defense of cnn. It wasnt just a defense of Kaitlyn Collins. What you saw in the unaninimity, it could be someone else tomorrow, it could be someone else in the administration. It struck one of our Core Functions again. Kaitlyn was told she couldnt attend an event that literally every other credentialed reporter on the white house grounds could attend. It was important we draw a line there and explain to people why that wasnt okay. The Washington Post reported that trump has wanted to do this before, that he has wanted to block certain reporters from coming to events. The post names jim acosta and april ryan as two of those reporters. Oneword question for you, s. E. Surprised . No. You know, trump has, i think, in business and life, operated as a sort of punitive force. I think he really likes to punish people to send a message or make examples or look like the strong man, the tough guy. And he has long wanted to punish the press, labeling us fake news, the enemy of the people has actually been very effective. Trust in the media is at an alltime low. So, this is having a significant impact. The difference now, i think, is that finally our news institution, our media, our press is sort of united around in solidarity around each other. And that is something that you and i have talked about a number of times, that we used to see in past administrations. Jake tapper calling out president obama for discrediting fox news or other organizations, calling out the Obama Administration for targeting the ap or trying to keep fox out of the press pool for an interview. There were those moments of solidarity that had not happened under trump until the past few weeks, starting with john roberts of fox really sort of being pressured to make a statement about trumps calling cnn and jim acosta not a real news network. He eventually did write a statement, to release a statement defending cnn. The week following that, you had hallie jackson, nbc news reporter, who was trying to press Sarah Sanders in a press briefing. She wasnt getting answers. Another Hill Reporter ceded his time back to her. Those moments of solidarity, including the Kaitlyn Collins incident, are a really welcome show of strength and show of force that i think has really taken to all. There have been several episodes. Olivier, let me be cynical for a second. Are we going to see this frequently or are they oneoffs . Most of the time you dont see it. Were having these conversations behind the scenes, meeting with Sarah Sanders and other communication officials to work out our problems behind the scenes. Again its typically not this heated. We often have debates about how much the press will see on a foreign trip, for example. Can we get the pool, the small group of 13 or so out to follow the president everywhere . Can we make sure that they stay in the motorcade . Can we make sure that they see the president actually meet with, say, british Prime Minister theresa may . A lot of the solidarity and work is happening behind the scenes. This was a very public moment. They made a decision to exclude Kaitlyn Collins of cnn from an event, from which literally every other credentialed reporter at the white house that day could attend. And it seems like if trump has been wanting this for a long time, the x factor here was bill schein, new on the job. Maybe he kind of just fell for it and now he saw the reaction. Real quick, one more story to touch on, katie. You and maggie haber reported about an amazing leak out of the white house, this email that showed how trump was angry when he boarded Air Force One and saw that melanias tv was tuned to cnn. What happened here . He wants all the tvs tuned to fox . Its Standard Operating Procedure now that all tvs will be on fox. When he returns to his hotel suite when traveling, the tvs will be tuned to fox. The emails are theyre a smaller example of this broader issue going on, that the president does not want to take in opposing or possibly opposing views. He is at a phase in his presidency where he does not want to hear anything other than his own messaging or supportive messaging. Emails are a smaller example that illustrate this larger issue. And Melania Trump won. Her team put out a statement saying she will watch whatever channel she wants. She did give that statement to your network. Thats right. Thats right. Of all the places she could have issued that statement to, she gave it to cnn. She sure did. To the panel, s. E. , stay tuned if you can. The reporter who exposed lies and corruption to the white house 45 years ago is doing it again. Carl bernstein joins me in a moment. Paying too much for insurance that isnt the right fit . Well, esurance makes finding the right coverage easy. In fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of 412. Thats auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. Come fly with me, lets fly,. Lets fly away. 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Nope get internet on our gigspeed network and add voice and tv for 34. 90 more per month. Call or go online today. President trump versus Michael Cohen playing out every night on your tv. Here is a humble proposal for the press. We just spend a lot more time on the facts and less time on the desperate spin about the facts. Im mostly talking about rudy giuliani, and how hes trying to Distance Team trump from the president s longtime fixer and lawyer, Michael Cohen. Rudys spin is desperate, kind of sad. We all know the truth will come out eventually. I dont know about you. I just feel like its taking a long time to get to the truth. Lets talk about all of it with a reporter whose byline graced all the stories about watergate 45 years ago and whose byline is back on the scoop about cohen and trump, who claims that trump knew in advance about that pivotal Trump Tower Meeting. Carl joins me now. Talk to me about this most recent story. Youve been saying for a year we need to follow the money, follow the lies and figure out this coverup. So how did you do it in this case . Talk to us about how you got this reporting. Well, i talked to sources. And as did jim sciuto. It became very apparent the former attorney to the president of the United States was going around and telling people that the famous Trump Tower Meeting, which indeed was convened for the purpose of collusion. Which is to say it was convene bid don junior to accept information from the russians about dirt on Hillary Clinton that, indeed, cohen was saying that donald trump, candidate for president of the United States at the time, had authorized the go ahead for that meeting to take place with his son. And i said this is news. As did cnn. Like in watergate, you have a very serious news organization. Cnn, in watergate, the Washington Post making judgments about what is news. And thats really the most important thing that we do, when we go out and do our reporting and then decide what is news and what is the best attainable version of the truth. Are sources trying to communicate to President Trump through you and through sciuto and through the tv . The last thing i would ever do is speculate about what sources do. I make my own judgments based on my interaction with sources, but this is no time to be psychoanalyzing sources. Thats a fair point. On air or anywhere else. What you put out there as news here is what im getting at is what the story is. Let me say one other thing. Explain that this is a story. The russian collusion coverup, story, what, indeed, Donald Trumps relationship to russia, to putin is. This is a vast story, the mueller investigation. And the elements include, for instance, we have trials coming up at which rick gates, who was one of the top aides to the president during the campaign, to whom the president spoke almost every day for three or four months, he has turned on the president and is about to testify and is cooperating with mueller. We have the story going on of the dynamic of trump and the press. That is part of this story. Its all related. We also have the questions about trumps competence raised by those closest to him. Mr. Tillerson, mr. Mcmaster, in private, others talking about whether or not the president is competent. We have the story going on about this Investigation Closing in and how psychologically trump is reacting. Telling the country that he is a stable genius while those in the white house are saying, well, he doesnt look very stable right now to us and he didnt look very much like a genius to us right now except where he obviously is ingenious. And that is in his political skills and mobilizing his base, which is his big offensive to keep the facts from emerging in this story. The base and keeping them energyized against the press is absolutely essential to donald trump fighting and furthering the coverup. Look, there is a coverup by the president of the United States. But we dont know what the coverup is about yet. We dont know the facts yet. Why he has, from the beginning in this investigation, and the Trump Tower Meeting is the best evidence of it. The coverup is demonstrable because he helped create the coverup story on the airplane, which has since been disproven about what occurred at that meeting. We have a lot to learn and we need to keep doing our reporting and that includes this dynamic that is going on of the attempts by the president to undermine a free press, because he wants our credibility destroyed because we are reporting the truth. He does twawant it destroyed. Carl, thank you so much for being here. Up next, fcc commissioner is here. Shell tell us why President Trump has got it so wrong about the sinclair tribune merger. vo this is not a video game. And today can save your life. Welcome back to reliable sources. Im brian stelter. President trump seems to be at odds with his hand picked fcc chair. For a while it seemed like the fcc under pai was preparing to approve the Sinclair Deal, giving them greater reach to promote trumps policies. Fcc put a hold on the deal earlier this month, slowed it down about sent it to an appeals process, a court essentially. Here is the thing. This Potential Deal that Sinclair Deal a rift. Former fox host eric bolling, who has been promoting the deal to trump. After the fcc issued its decision saying this was going to take a while, basically dooming the Sinclair Deal, President Trump shot back saying it was sad and unfair what the fcc was doing. Quote, this would have been a great and muchneeded conservative voice for and of the people. Then trump called the fccs action disgraceful. Fcc commissioner Swreska Rosenwurtzest L has a different view and joins me now. Jessica, have other president s weighed in on fcc decisions like this . Well, with respect to a merger like this, this is not normal. The fcc is an independent agency. We need to make sure that its the facts that guide us and the law. It shouldnt be part of our consideration whether or not the news outlet at issue has flattered this administration or earned the president s favor. You know, they certainly broadcast protrump commentaries but i had a bunch of sinclair reporters email me, text me saying i hate that the president is calling us conservative. Thats bad for our brand. We just want to be reporters and dont want to be identified on trumps side or other side. But there we are. What is actually happening with the Sinclair Deal . It was about a year ago that sinclair filed an application at the fcc, seeking to merge with tribune and create the nations largest Broadcast Company by far. Over the course of that year, the agency, often over my objection, bent and twisted a lot of its policies, seeming to clear the way for this merger. But two weeks ago, that stopped. The agency decided that it didnt have enough facts to support the merger before us and sent it to an investigative process in an order known as a hearing designation order. There will be more investigation into this transaction, whether or not it complies with our rules and whether the company has been honest before the fcc. Joe nosero for bloomberg says no matter what happens now the decision about sinclair will be tainted because President Trump has commented on it. Is that true . Is that a problem . Well, im worried about it just you know, we have got to make sure that we follow the rule of law, we look at the facts and we figure out what to do. Our process should not be politicized like its been. Its funny how, you know, the same week that the New York Times says mueller is looking at the president s tweets as part of a possible Obstruction Of Justice investigation, that the president keeps posted things about separate of powers, almost as if he doesnt know how the fcc operates. Why havent your fellow commissioners spoken up more . I dont know. When the president tweeted that i quickly said i disagree. I hope over time they can agree with me and say this isnt appropriate and its not the way that we should be conducting our merger reviews. So, well see what happens with sinclair. Bottom line is that this process takes a while. In other deals like this, they collapse. Thats right. Sinclair isnt throwing in the towel, right . They havent walked away yet. This story is not yet over. Got it. Jessica, thanks so much for being here. Thank you. Weve invited ajit pai on and hope he will join us in the future. Blood bath on the daily news, this weeks gutting of new yorks Hometown Paper from one of its remaining columnists. S. E. Cupp will be back with me in a moment. Be right back. With moderate to severe Crohns Disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be. Is she alright . I hope so. So i talked to my doctor about humira. I learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of Crohns Disease after trying other medications. And the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Be there for you, and them. Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. Well, esurance makes it simple and affordable. In fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of 412. Thats auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. Survive . Im joined now by s. E. Cupp, her most column was about this very problem. So your column continues for the paper for now, but you how did you react hearing about these laysoffs earlier in the week . Well, i woke on up like a lot of people did especially those of us who are connected to the paper in shock. I felt like it was a sucker punch. Not because this was as you mentioned the first round of layoffs, if youve worked in new, youve either survived or suffered layoffs before. But this was so sweeping and broad and from people ive spoken to inside off the record, it just sounded like there was not a lot of strategy behind this. One person told me it was indiscriminal tdiscriminate indiscriminate, slash by numbers at its worst. And so to lose 50 of your Editorial Staff is significant. And as you pointed out, the new york daily news is a top ten circulation paper, but it is still very much a local paper. And so it was a big blow for local news that day. What do you want to see local papers do to try to figure out the future . Local news and especially print media has to evolve. And that has been something in a print media especially has struggled with over the past couple of decades. This is not new, it is not as though people are just confronting this now. Some are doing a better job than others. But local news is so, so important. Put it two ways. One, your local news can very quickly become national news. If you think about spotlight and the story of Catholic Priests in boston, if you think about penn state, sarah began numbga ganum Jerry Sandusky story. A small protest in a syrian town becomes a civil war in national news. So local news can become national. But secondly, local news especially in smaller communities, News Reporters are sometimes the only people asking tough questions of government officials, elected officials, your school board, sanitation board, the people you trust to keep your kids safe. And if this re not aere are not those questions, sometimes no one else is. They can feel like politicians know when the lights are off off. That is worrisome. Se, thank you so much for being here. I spoke with three of the Playoff Victims for this weeks podcast. Check it out, i think you will learn a lot from them. And that is all for this edition of reliable sources. 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